Just when I thought the world couldn't get any more stupid, I come across this Young Turks video. A church in Pennsylvania has began to worship guns. They bring their guns to church, claiming they symbolise the 'rod of iron' the bible talks about. I've rarely heard of anything more ridiculous or more scary.

These psychopaths have naturally stirred up quite a bit of controversy in the states, with people protesting frequently outside. As the guys in the video point out, imagine if this wasn't a church but a mosque, with people openly showing off their high-calibre assault rifles - there would be an absolute outcry.

Yet I think there's something more insidious going on here: certain Americans seem to want to link their supposed 'right to bear arms' to religion. They think the second amendment is under threat; one way to make sure their right to own guns is protected might be to deliberately conflate that right with the right to religious freedom. No government could impinge on religious freedom, so their guns are safe. Seen that way, it's a fairly cynical act. To take that a step further, who's to say that gun manufacturers or groups like the NRA aren't behind this scary church, deliberately using it for their own abhorrent ends? Make guns a part of religion, and they take on an entirely new cultural position.

Either way, it's very, very scary. Our American cousins seem to be lurching from one mind-numbing stupidity to another. I know not all Americans are this psychotic, and that many are as appalled at what is now going on there as I am; yet the country seems to be going further and further to the right, and I dread to think where all this gun-worshiping stupidity will end up.

Posted 02/03/2018 at 16:36:31 (GMT)

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